What is Infrared (IR)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Infrared Finance is built as the essential infrastructure for Berachain’s Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) economy. It solves a key DeFi problem: unlocking liquidity from staked assets. Instead of locking up Berachain’s native governance (BGT) and gas (BERA) tokens, users can stake them through Infrared and receive liquid tokens (iBGT and iBERA) that can be used elsewhere in DeFi while still earning staking rewards. This positions Infrared as the primary yield and liquidity rail for the entire Berachain ecosystem.

2. Core Functionality & Token Utility

The IR token is central to the protocol’s operations and community. Its primary utilities, as outlined in the official introduction, include:

• Staking for Governance: Users stake IR to receive sIR, which grants voting power on protocol upgrades and parameter changes.
• Fee Distribution: A portion of protocol revenue is distributed to sIR holders.
• Buyback Fund: Another portion of fees flows to the Red Fund, which buys back IR tokens from the market to fund community initiatives and incentives.

3. Tokenomics & Supply Structure

IR has a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens. The allocation is designed for long-term alignment:

• Ecosystem & Treasury: 23.5% and 15.2%, respectively, with a 20% unlock at the Token Generation Event (TGE) and linear vesting over 24 months.
• Team & Investors: 18% and 21.3%, with a one-year cliff before a 10% unlock, followed by 24-month linear vesting.
• Community & Liquidity: Allocations for airdrops (2%) and liquidity provisioning (9.25%) were fully liquid at TGE to bootstrap participation.

Conclusion

Infrared (IR) is fundamentally a governance and revenue-sharing token that powers the leading liquid staking protocol on Berachain, aiming to make staked capital more efficient and accessible. How will its utility expand as Berachain’s DeFi ecosystem matures?